Stick to yer ribs

May 6, 2008 at 4:27 pm (dinner, links, photos, recipes, vegan, veganized) (dinner, Gourmet Magazine, links, photos, recipes, tempeh, vegan, veganized)

The awesome folks over at What the hell does a vegan eat anyway? got me lusting last week, when they posted pics of a rib recipe (veganized, bien sur) from Gourmet magazine. Mmmmmm. But lacking the key ingredients (black vinegar, seitan, and the ability to deep fry things), I figured I’d take a stab at a baked tempeh version.

OMG. I bet the original version is even better, but these are yummy. The sauce reduces to a rich, savoury-sweet glaze full of ginger and caramelized shallots and garlic. I served them with steamed dandelion greens and garlic-celeriac mashed potatoes the first night, and balsamic mushrooms, cornmeal potato cakes, and a spinach/kale mixture the next. My omnivore housemate liked them a lot — he felt they really did have a certain ‘ribness’ going for them.

Damn, I’ve gone and made myself hungry.

Very tasty tempeh ‘ribs’

• 1pkg (250g) tempeh
• 1T cornstarch*
• 1 clove garlic, sliced
• 1 small shallot, sliced
• 1/2 T ginger, cut into thin strips (I may have used a bit more)
• 2T brown sugar
• 2 T water
• 2 T tamari soy sauce
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 T vegan worcestershire sauce
• drop or two liquid smoke
• 2 T oil

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Put casserole dish and oil in to heat too.
2. Cut tempeh into 1″ strips, or however wide you want your ‘ribs’. I managed 6 riblets from my package.
3. Toss the tempeh with cornstarch to coat lightly.*
4. Spread the riblets evenly across the bottom of your hot casserole dish, put in oven for 5 minutes or so.
5. Mix all remaining ingredients.
6. Turn the riblets, pour the sauce over top, and cover tightly.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn the riblets and baste with liquid.
8. Re-cover, and bake another 25 minutes.
9. Baste again. Bake uncovered for five to ten minutes more, until the sauce is quite thick.

* I’m not convinced the ‘cornstarching’ is necessary. You might be able skip this step (and ingredient) and just stir a bit of cornstarch+water into the sauce towards the end of the cooking time instead, to help it thicken. I’ll be trying that next time.